Jason chuckled grimly. "We've known each other a long time, man. Don't you remember how I had to take my mom to the women's shelter when I was 15? I grew up with an abusive, alcoholic stepfather. Dealing with some floating bully with bad fashion sense isn't going to impress me much these days. Sure, the fact that he's flying is new, but the attitude isn't anything I haven't encountered before, and I'm a grown man now. My freak-out meter is either set really, really high, or it's completely broken now."
Henry nodded and grunted. Jason wasn't sure what it meant. He hadn't mastered the grunt language that Henry defaulted to sometimes.
As they trudged along, Jason wondered why he'd brought up his stepfather. He usually didn't talk much about things from that portion of his past. His nerves must have been truly frayed to casually discuss the worst chapter of his life.
Both men kept walking until they reached the top of a large hill. The sun was beginning to set, and after Henry was sure they were oriented correctly using landmarks on the map, they realized the sun was actually setting to the east. That was going to take some getting used to. Jason was about to tell Henry they should think about making a camp or something when both men saw the goblins in the distance.
Goblins
Henry squinted and strained to observe the goblins walking through a clearing on a hillside about one hundred fifty yards away. They were small and green with huge ears and long noses. Henry judged they were about three and a half feet tall. He actually didn't know what they were, but their general appearance made "goblins" seem an appropriate term.
He and Jason were both flat on their stomachs, looking over the top of a hill. Both men had hit the ground to be less visible as soon as they saw humanoid movement. Well, Henry had, and he'd dragged Jason down with him. Luckily, his HEMA fencing armor was thick enough that the damp forest mulch wasn't uncomfortable and wasn't getting him wet.
Jason whispered, "What do we do?"
Henry frowned and whispered back, "Nothing for right now. We're just being cautious. We don't know for sure they're hostile. For all we know, those things are peaceful and just look weird to us." Right about that time, a few more goblins emerged from the trees leading an old man, a young woman, and a little boy through the clearing. The prisoners were restrained, and it was obvious that they were all in rough shape. A goblin holding a spear brought up the rear and prodded the young boy to walk faster. The boy cried out.
"Oh hell," Henry quietly cursed.
Jason looked resigned, "You know... if we are actually going to survive in this place, we shouldn't get involved."
"Yup."
"But we're going to get involved anyway, aren't we?"
Henry was conflicted. He really didn't want to die. He was also extremely tired and still adjusting to the situation. He'd already had a full weekend of practicing sword drills with Jason before getting zapped to Ludus. He'd also just hiked through the woods for an hour. He had a suspicion that whatever Dolos did to get them here was affecting him too.
Unfortunately, there were some things he knew he couldn't walk away from, certain things he couldn't tolerate because he had to live with himself as long as he still breathed. His moral code was clear on the situation, but he also had his friend to think about. He paused and asked Jason, "What do you think?"
Jason scratched his chin. His tall, lanky frame was sprawled out awkwardly, obviously not used to hiding from prying eyes. His brown hair was uncombed, as usual, and Henry thought he looked like a goof. However, in moments like these, Henry thought Jason's intellect was obvious. He could practically see the gears turning in his friend's mind. Henry would never understand why so many girls found his friend attractive, nor how Jason could be so oblivious to all the attention. It must have been the thin air that tall people had to breathe.
Jason replied, "Well, those people obviously need help. I've never even been in much of a real fight as an adult, but I know a good reason for fighting when I see it. Plus, I know you want to go help those people, and there are worse ways to die than doing something right with a friend."
Henry was touched. He'd hung out with Jason a lot the last few years, especially after his divorce. It was nice to know that their friendship meant as much to Jason as it did to him. Plus it spoke volumes that Jason was willing to watch his back and possibly even die while doing so. They were in a ridiculous situation, they were probably both in shock, but his friend's inherent goodness and integrity seemed to be immutable. Henry wished he was that good of a person.
"Okay, let's move over to that clearing. Try to walk as quietly as possible. Look for straight sticks or small trees we can make into spears."
Jason pointed at their polypropylene practice weapons. "Will these do us any good? You know I'm pretty good with a long sword, but I'm not that great with a spear."
Henry shook his head. He said, "No, those goblins or whatever the fuck they are had metal weapons. Metal will cut right through this stuff." He demonstrated his point by easily cutting into the guard of his training sword with the machete. "Our HEMA armor should help a bit, though. I mean, I'd rather be wearing steel, but this stuff beats a fuckin' T-shirt."
Jason nodded glumly, and after hiding the useless training weapons in a bush, the pair started moving through the forest to where they'd seen the goblins. While they walked, they fashioned a few makeshift spears using the pocket knife from the duffle bag.
Henry noticed that some of the foliage was unlike any he'd ever seen before. Sunlight from the greenish blue sky slanted through trees and lighted on a bush with pretty pink flowers about thirty feet ahead of them. He suddenly froze in his tracks and put an arm out to stop Jason too. Jason looked at him questioningly, but Henry just shook his head.
He wasn't quite sure why he stopped, and he wasn't getting any clues from just staring at the bush. Eventually he grunted, motioning Jason to follow him in a path around the bush and the flowers. Henry had learned to listen to his hunches through painful experience. He was damn sure not going to ignore his gut on a strange planet while moving towards a fight.
When the two men reached the clearing they'd seen the goblins and prisoners pass through, they discovered a well-worn trail. Henry knew that if he and Jason were smart, they'd scout the area around them, do a few days of recon, then formulate a plan of attack with at least ten other people. Unfortunately, their situation sucked. They had no backup, just a cheap machete and a handful of makeshift spears.
Not for the first time, Henry wished he could just walk away from helping other people in terrible circumstances. He just couldn't bring himself to do it, though. Henry knew he was a lot of no-so-great things, but a coward was not one of them.
He was having serious doubts they were going to survive attacking the goblin creatures. He and Jason had only been on another world for a couple hours! He was even thinking about telling Jason to turn back so he could just go ahead by himself until he saw the blood. He squatted down and bent closer. Yes, he could see blood in and around the human footprints. At least one of the prisoners was badly injured.
These people didn't need a martyr; they needed a rescue.
Henry steeled his resolve and felt the strange but familiar calm he always experienced in combat or car crashes--car crashes that most definitely were not his fault. Definitely not his fault. He gestured Jason over and whispered, "We have to be really quiet now while we follow this trail. For all we know, they have a camp a few dozen feet away."
Jason nodded. He asked, "Do we have a plan?"
"I don't. Do you?"
"I was afraid you were going to say that," Jason sighed.
Both men began slowly, carefully, following the trail through the woods. They walked for about fifteen minutes until the path began to snake around a hill. Henry got a bad feeling as they approached a blind corner around a rock outcropping and motioned Jason to be careful.
Jason nervously nodded and readied one of his makeshift spears in one hand, the rest held under his other arm. As they crept forwa
rd, Henry smelled a new, acrid odor under the normal, loamy scent of the forest. In two more steps, they came upon a goblin relieving itself against a tree just off the trail. The goblin turned its head as the two men rounded the bend. It was hard to tell which party was more surprised, but Jason acted first.
With a grunt of effort, he whipped his long arm forward, and more by luck than skill, his makeshift spear went right through the goblin's neck. Dark ichor welled up from the terrible wound, and the goblin fell to the ground, trashing around, its eyes dilated and its mouth open as it tried to scream. Luckily, all it could manage was a tortured gurgle. The goblin's loincloth flipped up, and Henry amended, Ah, it's a "he," not an "it."
Henry stepped forward quickly to end the goblin's suffering with his machete. When he turned around, he saw Jason staring at the goblin in sick fascination for a full five seconds before throwing up. Henry left his friend alone to get control of himself and began checking the goblin's gear with clinical detachment. The creature was a mess and smelled horrible, but Henry had seen worse.
Along with the loincloth, the goblin was wearing a crude vest made of hide. The creature also had a small bag with some near-rancid dried meat and a little stoneware water bottle corked with wax. For weapons, the goblin was carrying a flint spear and a long, bronze seax-style knife. Henry thought this goblin could have been the one that stabbed the boy in the clearing. "Serves the little motherfucker right," he muttered.
He stood up and saw Jason was wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. His friend was still a little green, but he was pulling himself back together. Henry tossed him the long, bronze knife and kept the flint spear for himself.
"I'm sorry," Jason whispered. He didn't look at the goblin and kept his eyes on the trail. "It's really dead, right?"
Henry nodded and said, "Yeah, it's dead. Don't worry about it-- your reaction is pretty normal. You've never even gone hunting, have you?"
Jason shook his head. "No. I think what really bothers me is that we don't even know if we are the good guys here. We might have just committed murder."
"No, for better or for worse, we've decided to war on these things." He grimaced. "It's true we're in a new place and this is pretty intense, but it was obvious that those people we saw needed help. Restraining people, making them march while bleeding, and wounding children with weapons are all pretty good signs of being an asshole."
Jason nodded thoughtfully and examined the bronze knife. "This thing is pretty crude, but it actually has good balance for throwing."
"Good, maybe you can throw it then. I know you practice that stuff." Henry nudged the dead goblin with his foot. "This thing didn't have any armor, but we can't be sure that will be the case up ahead."
Jason nodded, and the two men began following the trail again. Adrenaline made Henry's heart beat like crazy, but he tried to be calm. They pushed forward like that for another ten minutes before the trail ended at the entrance to a creepy cave. Two skulls sat on the ground to either side of the opening, and they could see a torch sputtering a few steps inside. There was a faint animal-like smell coming from inside.
Jason gave him a questioning glance, and Henry briefly considered what they should do. In the end, he couldn't think of anything clever and shrugged. He pantomimed walking slowly and looking around, then he put a finger over his lips. Jason nodded, and both men entered the cave, weapons at the ready.
As they moved forward, Henry surreptitiously watched Jason to see whether his friend was going to crack under stress. However, while Jason's hands were shaking and he was swallowing in fear, his eyes were steady and his jaw was clenched. Henry was impressed. The first time he'd seen combat in the Middle East, one of his friends in the army pissed himself. Jason was handling his first WTF moment fairly well, especially since they were walking into a dark, fucked up, creepy-ass cave, tracking down fantasy creatures for a fight to the death.
Henry thought it was strange that the goblins didn't have a lookout posted. He cocked his head and listened while the nearby torch cast shadows against the wall next to him. He thought he could hear something in the distance. The little bits of noise he caught made his hackles rise.
They continued deeper into the cave, and the smell kept growing worse the deeper they got. The lonely pools of torchlight gave barely enough illumination to see by as they crept forward. The walls perspired with dirty water, and the cave's stone floor was pitted with random, shallow holes. A deep, natural rut almost twisted Henry's ankle, and he was barely able to steady himself in time.
The cave eventually turned into a natural tunnel, and the noises ahead bounced around in disconcerting ways. Henry could see more concentrated torchlight coming from where the cave started to open up again. He got low, motioning for Jason to do the same, and they moved forward cautiously until they could see into the area ahead.
The scene they were greeted with was horrific. The chamber before them was actually a few feet lower than where they were crouched down, a natural ramp leading from the tunnel down to the floor. The old man they'd seen earlier in the clearing was lying in a heap against the wall, a bump on his head and blood leaking from his temple. The woman was being held down by two goblins while a third was cutting off her clothes with a stone knife. She was screaming, her voice weak and desperate. Every time she tried to struggle, one of the goblins casually hit her in the face with the back of its hand. The little boy...
Henry swallowed. He'd seen some terrible things in war and while working as an emergency responder, but it always hit him hardest when kids got hurt. What he was seeing... he knew he was going to have nightmares. More nightmares. The boy was dead, and two goblins were butchering the body as if it were the carcass of an animal. Blood spread in an enormous pool on the floor in an area that seemed dug out as a fire pit.
Henry noted in a detached sort of way that the goblins probably butchered things in the fire pits while they weren't being used and then built fires to burn up the offal.
One goblin that was bigger than the others wore crude bone armor and stood by a torch, observing the butchery with a smile. Henry figured he was the boss goblin. He counted a total of six goblins including the armored boss; he assumed all of them were male. Henry glanced at Jason and saw tears in his friend's eyes. He had a feeling that Jason was no longer conflicted with the morality of killing goblins or whatever these fucking things were.
Henry held out a hand, and Jason handed him one of the crude, green wood spears. He held up three fingers, then two, then one, counting down. Jason's eyes were wild, but his shoulders were squared and his nostrils flared. For the second time that day, Henry felt honored to know his friend. He knew they might die in the next few minutes, but he felt deep pride in the course of action they were taking. He was damn sure not going to walk away from evil like this, and he respected his friend's courage in joining him.
As soon as Henry made a fist, both men jumped up and attacked, their yells blending with the screams of the woman on the floor and the chittering of goblins.
Battle in the Cave
The first spear Jason threw hit one of the goblins squatting over the butchered boy. He saw the goblin next to it go down too, Henry's greenwood spear sticking out of its back. Jason felt tears running down his cheeks as he screamed in defiance and fear.
The goblins were caught completely off guard; most of their weapons were stacked in the corner of the room. Jason thanked God for small favors. He knew that without the element of surprise, he and Henry would probably already be dead.
After the first two goblins went down, Henry ran forward to the goblin on top of the woman and nearly decapitated it with a mighty swing of his machete. The goblin died, pawing at its neck while blood drenched its filthy clothing. Then Henry spun and used his remaining spear in one hand, his machete in the other, and held off the two remaining goblins near the woman.
Jason found himself facing off against the boss goblin. In any other circumstance, he would have been hesitant about a life or
death battle with a capable-looking fantasy monster, but the horror of the butchered boy gave him crystal clear focus. Just like he'd always done in training, he slightly unfocused his eyes and watched the movements of his opponent. He ignored the tears and snot running down his face.
The goblin boss was about four feet tall. Jason had a hard time regarding the goblin as a "he," a thinking creature. He decided to think of the goblins as "its," monsters. The boss goblin's armor looked primarily made of bone held together with sinew, and Jason knew that his improvised wooden spears wouldn't be much use against it. This meant he had to aim for unprotected areas like the head, legs, and arms.
The goblin carried an old-looking, tarnished bronze sword and a shield made of hide. The goblin shrieked something at Jason, spittle foaming at the corners of its mouth. Jason kept calm and jabbed at its exposed areas while parrying with the two spears he still held in his other hand.
The goblin was nimble and surprisingly strong. Jason noticed that the two creatures Henry was fighting were both armed with stone knives and his friend was about to be overwhelmed. Jason made a split-second decision and took a risk. He hurled a spear at the goblin boss to get some breathing room, stepped back, and threw his bronze knife at one of Henry's opponents. The knife hit point first, but Jason's aim was off; he only managed to impale its thigh. It was enough, though.
The wounded goblin slowed down noticeably from the wound, and Henry was able to stab it in the chest with the flint spear. Then Henry sprang back, blocked a wild swing, and used his machete to finish off the other goblin.
The goblin boss would have killed Jason if not for his HEMA armor, and the training gear gave just enough protection to stop the bronze sword from cutting him to ribbons. His arm holding his blocking spear was numb, and he was covered in bruises, though. He had to grit his teeth and fight through the pain; his lungs became even more desperate for air.
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